We now know with certainty Chinese numbers are more trustworthy than US (and half of EU) ones on the sole basis Chinese are actually TESTING people, while CDC refuses any due diligence.
But back to the discussion about the WHO, their bland attitude is greatly to blame for the inaction of the CDC, and the rest of the world.
As a case study, for some days half of all confirmed cases outside of China were in the Diamond Princess, and the proportion held until very recently with 1000+ cases worldwide (sans China). Why? Sampling bias. Even arguing that a cruise is more virus-friendly cannot possibly account for a single ship holding half of the world's cases. And then came about Iran and Italy, with no clear path of spread. It's hurtfully evident that there are so many more cases and there's a huge visibility issue, and the WHO delaying measures aggravates the matter dramatically.
> We now know with certainty Chinese numbers are more trustworthy than US (and half of EU) ones on the sole basis Chinese are actually TESTING people, while CDC refuses any due diligence.
That just means the upper bound of the potential quality of the Chinese numbers is better, not that the actual quality of the numbers is better. Just because they are gathering more information doesn't mean they are publicly reporting it accurately.
That is, the Chinese potentially internally have more complete data, because they are doing more surveillance. That doesn't mean that the numbers they are reporting are more trustworthy.
As a case study, for some days half of all confirmed cases outside of China were in the Diamond Princess, and the proportion held until very recently with 1000+ cases worldwide (sans China). Why? Sampling bias. Even arguing that a cruise is more virus-friendly cannot possibly account for a single ship holding half of the world's cases. And then came about Iran and Italy, with no clear path of spread. It's hurtfully evident that there are so many more cases and there's a huge visibility issue, and the WHO delaying measures aggravates the matter dramatically.